XMen: Beginning Again
by Rikou Kyohaku
Summary: After X3, everyone tries to find normalcy until a new government threat puts the XMen back in action without the leadership of their fallen comrades. Although the Cure has been quarantined, humans again want to rid themselves of mutants.


**X-Men: Beginning Again**

_Set After X3, everyone tries to find normalcy until a new government threat puts the X-Men back in action without the leadership of their fallen comrades. Although the Cure has been quarantined, humans again want to rid themselves of the biggest mistake of nature; mutants. _

**Chapter 1**

**Beginning Again**

"Even you know how fast the weather can change," he had said to her.

Storm stood in the same place a year ago; on the same balcony in the same position. Crossing her arms she looked up into the sky.

That statement was one of the last things Professor Charles Xavier had said to her before the Phoenix had killed him.

Now Storm stood in the same place, same storm clouds brewing yet no one could come to console her. She felt truly and utterly alone. Scott was dead, the Professor was dead, and Jean was dead. The three people she had to welcome her when she first arrived could not continue their relationship with her. Logan, who seemed to want to stay, had left as well.

1Professor Xavier had also one day told Storm that she would one day inherit the school and that melancholy day came last fall but Storm handled it with smiles and laughter keeping the feelings of pain and sorrow hidden from her students.

This fall, she thought would be alike to the last. She would go into the Professor's office – her office and wait for the first set of students to come in. She would then proceed by giving her first day of school lecture which would not happen before she played the name game with them.

The Professor used to play the Name Game except with his own twist. Storm closed her eyes and recalled the first time she saw him play the Name Game with his students. He would ask them to telepathically say their names and special abilities, then he would repeat them out loud and then the students would have to guess what power belonged to what mutant.

Storm remembered when a young Bobby Drake was confused with a young John Allerdyce by Jubilee whose excuse for the confusion was, "they're both cute."

Storm smiled at the memory and sighed. The first bell had rung and although she was not psychic she did, however, have her own twist on the name game. She opened the door to the room, sat in her chair and sighed heavily.

"Welcome to Mutant High," she began, "My name is Storm and I like summer."

---

"Just call me Bobby." The bright-eyed college freshmen said smiling at his new college roommate. Putting down a large cardboard box, Bobby sighed and collapsed into the desk chair.

"Good," the African American male said resting his head on the plain white sheets of the bottom bunk. "Calling you Robert definitely made me sound old and you nerdy." He chuckled, sitting up.

"Hey Jackson," Bobby began, "Sorry again for being unavailable all summer. A lot of things were happening."

"Don't sweat it, bro." Jackson replied, jumping up from the bottom bunk and onto the top bunk with catlike reflexes. "You can make it up to me by giving me top bunk."

Bobby scoffed. "Pssht. I don't think that's fair. How do you figure?"

"Well," Jackson turned his dark-brown eyes to the ceiling as if the answer were written on it. "I wasn't exactly comfortable calling someone I didn't know fifty times (forty to the house and ten to the disconnected cell phone) so now my comfort will be repaid sleeping on top bunk. Jackson then looked at Bobby who scowled, not buying the excuse. "I mean, what would've happened if both of us came in with refrigerators?"

Bobby couldn't hold his serious facial expression after that comment. He busted out into laughter as he pulled out the refrigerator from the cardboard box he was holding before. "Alright, alright," he finally replied. "But second semester, we're flipping a coin."

"Deal," Jackson said chuckling as he relaxed on his bed, facing the ceiling. "I am so excited for this year, bro." he said as he listened to Bobby unpacking his belongings. "The fun, the parties, the girls..."

"Girls are good." Bobby responded putting his own lamp on the dorm desk.

Jackson smiled and closed his eyes. "Yes, you're right; do you have one back home?"

"Have one what?" Bobby asked trying to avoid the subject matter.

"A girlfriend, Captain Oblivious." Jackson said, propping his head on his hand to look at his roommate.

"Girlfriend; no, no way." Bobby responded uneasily.

"Good," Jackson replied again. "Because this week is Freshmen Week and we are going to have a whole lot of fun!"

---

"You having fun, Anna?" a boy with a deep southern accent asked. It was a different kind of southern that Anna was used to. Her own came from Caldecott County, Mississippi and that was where the brown-haired, green-eyed beauty was originally from. She was now in Grayson County, Texas enjoying the party-life and her youth in a small pub just outside of Dallas. "Come on, give me another dance."

Anna smiled pushing white strands of hair behind her ear. "Alright Freddy," she replied. "But this is the last one."

And up the pretty Southern Belle jumped and as the intro into the square-dance song played, she slowly advanced to her dance partner. She put her soft, bare hand in his as she looked into the sandy blonde-haired boy's eyes and away they went. As the caller gave the next command, the eight performed a do-si-do with his or her partner and swung into a promenade. Anna laughed wildly and had a smile so large on her face she felt like her teeth were targets in a shooting range.

Soon the dance ended and the eight teenagers waddled and limped back to their seats except of course Freddy who danced his way back, excited after the last dance. "Let's do it again, fellas!"

"NO!" they exclaimed sternly each taking a sip of water.

"Alright then," he shrugged.

Leaving the pub a quarter to one, the eight teenagers went their separate ways, but Freddy had a different plan for Anna. "Follow me," he had said and before she knew it, Anna was walking in a woody area. She held his hand; half because she was scared and half because she could. Even though it had been a year since she had given up her mutant abilities for the life a normal civilian, she still could not get over the fact that she was capable of human contact. Every night she went to bed with a bad nightmare thinking that her powers had returned, thinking that she was only dreaming her ordinary, normal life. However, she snapped back to reality every time she held hands with someone, or hugged them, or kissed them; however she had not shared a kiss with anybody for over a year.

As a teenager, one could think that utterly impossible, even a kiss on the cheek could not be avoided, but for Anna, who once called herself Rogue, a kiss was something still very sacred, the only thing she could not do, and though even now she could, she wouldn't do it to or for just anybody.

"When I was a child, I used to come out here to think. Whenever my parents fought or life just got terrible, I'd just come here to this here swing set." Freddy confessed to her in the darkness. The moon was showing in its full potential and Anna was somewhat uncomfortable. Freddy sat on the swing and motioned for Anna to sit beside him, but she was unresponsive. "_Ah_ won't _bat_, _ah_ promise!" he said letting his Texan accent get the better of him.

So Anna sat down, and he put his arm around her. "You know why I brought you here?" he asked.

"You wanted to seduce your date where most of your childhood memories are?" she smiled trying to leave that feeling of discomfort.

Freddy chuckled a little. "That could happen," he said in a hushed voice that sent chills up Anna's spine. "But the real reason is because it's really a secret haven for me. I haven't shared this place with any one before, not to mention a girlfriend."

"Girlfriend!" Anna replied quickly. "Freddy, I don't think that you could call me your girlfriend; we've only dated for three months."

Freddy turned his head to the side. "Why are you so afraid of letting anybody in, Anna? I really thought we've been hitting it off."

"We are Freddy," Anna said assuring him. "But, I just don't think I'm ready for a relationship right now."

"Do you got some big secret to hide, Anna? Do you have a jealous ex, are you seeing someone else," Freddy paused to think of something even cleverer. "Are you one of them mutants that suck out human life forces and turn people into prunes?" Freddy began laughing out loud.

Anna shot up from her seat on the swing and was ready to leave until Freddy grabbed her hand. "_A'm _sorry Anna, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. You can't be a mutant, being as wonderful and pretty as you are."

"Mutants can be wonderful and pretty, Freddy," Anna said looking into the distance.

Freddy snickered. "What are you, a mutant lover?"

"No!" Anna yelped.

"A mutant yourself?"

"No! No!" she replied even louder.

"Then what's up, Anna! Here _ah_ am pouring _mah_ heart out and you ain't respondin' wit nothin!"

Anna knew he was mad, and she knew he was really trying to connect with her. So, she sighed and took the seat beside him again. "I really am just afraid of a relationship right now, okay?"

Freddy searched her eyes and then rolled his. "You must be afraid of a lot of things then."

"No I'm not, Freddy!" Anna exclaimed. "I've just seen and been through a lot alright?"

"Well if you're so unafraid, prove it."

"How?" Anna asked.

"Kiss me, then. Prove to me you're not afraid and kiss me." Freddy stated.

Anna scoffed but Freddy was serious and she knew it. She looked around her as if to see if anybody could be watching and then she looked up into the sky and saw pure, white, full moon shining down on them.

"Go ahead, Anna; kiss me, I dare you." He whispered seductively.

Anna continued looking at the moon and a distant memory invaded her mind. Under a full moon not unlike the one she was mesmerized with, she had shared a kiss with her last boyfriend. His name was Bobby.

"Go ahead Rogue," he said to her as they sat on a bench outside the Xavier Institute. "Let's try again. I'm not afraid." Bobby saw the uncertainty in her eyes. "Kiss me."

So she did and she felt him use his ice powers to shield his mouth from her ability to drain a living being's essence. However, something went wrong and she began to absorb his essence and that is when the kiss broke. Bobby fell to the ground and convulsed for a few seconds and then was still. She was about to cry as she watched him get up. Planting her face in her hands, she sobbed until she felt his hand rubbing her back, covered by a brown sweater

"Ten seconds this time," he stated a matter-of-factly. "A few days from now, we'll be making out."

Her head shot up and she gave him an inquisitive look, searching his cool and calm face. Without any words, she embraced him, making sure none of her skin touched his.

That was the best kiss she had ever had because her first kiss was with a bow that was still in a coma. That's why she felt she and Bobby would last; they were working on ways to keep him out of that comatose state. However, a few months later under another full moon, she had seen him holding the face of one her peers, Kitty Pride.

"ANNA!" Freddy shouted, snapping her back to reality. "Are you gonna kiss me or not."

"Forget you, Bobby." she thought to herself before taking Freddy's face into her hands and forcing her lips onto his. Pain and turmoil was in that kiss on her part but Freddy began to enjoy it none the less until pain and turmoil began to take him over as well.

Freddy suddenly felt himself become weak and felt him lose all the energy to perform any of the things he desired to do. Freddy opened his eyes as Anna still planted her tongue in his mouth, and kept her hands on his face. He began to give sound to his feelings through yelps and shrieks of torture. Anna opened her eyes to see a sight she had not seen for over a year. Freddy's eyes were wide open, his veins began to protrude on his body, and suddenly she was filled with his memories and his thoughts.

"Ohmigod!" she uttered as Freddy lay convulsing on the ground. Anna didn't know what to do. She could not scream and she could not cry, though tears began streaming her face. She could not go for help because she knew they would blame her but she could not run because even then they would blame her. She tried calming herself and tried to think clearly. Anna looked at Freddy, still convulsing though slower, and reached into his pocket pulling out his cell phone. She dialed 911 and waited for a response.

"He's hurt, he's hurt!" she exclaimed only to hear the woman on the other line ask who it was. "Freddy, he's hurt. Ohmigod!" She closed the cell phone and ran as fast as she could into the woods, trying not to look back. Anna whimpered the whole way through thinking of what happened; thinking of what happened to Bobby, thinking of what happened to her first boyfriend, Cody. She had the same feeling she was experiencing now when she saw Cody convulse on her bed. That was when she knew her life would never be the same, that's when she knew she was different – that was when she realized that she was a mutant. She failed to be Marie in Mississippi and now she had failed being Anna in Texas. The only thing that she saw in her future was being a mutant, a lonely mutant who could not make physical contact with anybody. She would be a lonely mutant called Rogue.

The life she left, the life she hated, was beginning again and that was all she could think about.

* * *

_Author's notes: This will be my first "full length X-Men fic, my other being short and to the point and my others failing to launch. Bare with me as I challenge myself to incorporate my writing style and ideas with the original X-Men Comics and the storyline of the X-Men Movie Franchise._

_Rikou Kyohaku_


End file.
